Kaplan Classroom Prep Course Forum

[Knock]

What is everyone's thoughts on it? I've been saving so the money isn't a super huge issue, and I already purchased all the PT's, all 3 Powerscore Bibles + LG workbook, all 3 "10 actual, official" lsat preptest books, and LSAC Superprep, so that is not an issue.

I took a LSAT practice test from Kaplan to gauge where I'm at, plus I couldn't pass up a free test under simulated conditions (got a 165, if that gives you any indication of where I'm at so far, and i'm shooting for a 173+; this wasn't completely cold, i've been studying for a month or so on my own. no idea what I was scoring before I started studying at the end of January, but when I tried to take a PT over last summer completely cold, I had to completely stop after encountering the first LG question), and got to meet the person who would be teaching the course. He seemed fairly intelligent and experienced, and told us that he was actually the person who trained new teachers for the region, including the adjacent county. They only seem to offer the basic class, so I won't be able to take the Kaplan Advanced course either.

Unfortunately, the only company that offers classroom prep in my area is Kaplan. So it is either this or nothing. So please, share your thoughts.

[Capitalist]

Knocklgock, I'm also in a similar situation. I'll be re-taking in June and the only prep company in my area is Kaplan, so I'm curious as well about if Kaplan is worth it.

[Knock]

Knocklgock, I'm also in a similar situation. I'll be re-taking in June and the only prep company in my area is Kaplan, so I'm curious as well about if Kaplan is worth it.

Well hopefully someone can come along and provide us with some useful information and help us figure out what to do

[tomwatts]

You could also take an online course. Several companies (including the one I work for, Princeton Review) offer good recorded online or live online options.

[Knock]

You could also take an online course. Several companies (including the one I work for, Princeton Review) offer good recorded online or live online options.

I was kind of shying away from this option. I haven't really researched online options, but I feel somewhat hesitant to go that route. I'm not exactly sure why, but I am fairly skeptical of an online course's ability to raise my score beyond what I could just learn on my own through the various material's i've already bought.

I feel having a teacher would be beneficial due to that human element. I can ask a question and get some specific help.

[tomwatts]

I feel having a teacher would be beneficial due to that human element. I can ask a question and get some specific help.

I feel the same way. That's why I normally recommend the LiveOnline course most strongly; there's a teacher (two, actually) who is right there and leads you through the material in real time, and can answer your questions as the class goes along. The way we do it is with Elluminate (whiteboard on screen with basic Paint functionality, text field that works like AIM, headset like Skype or a hardcore gamer), so there really is human interaction.

I normally say the reason to take our LiveOnline course is that we have by far the longest (55 hours) of the live courses online. Several of the major companies don't even have live courses online. BP, for example, only has a recorded online course.

[granger]

No no no no no! I took it. Don't. Inefficient diagrams, and really teaches you absolutely nothing about attacking RC.

[granger]

And if you got a 165, certainly don't take this class. Self-study. Kaplan's course is sooo not geared towards you. You're in great position and you'd be wasting your money on Kaplan.

[sukaili]

I've seen a lot of anti-Kaplan sentiment on TLS, but I took a classroom course and was really satisfied. I thought Kaplan's online resources were great - all of your practice tests are analysed for your strengths/weaknesses and you can chart your progress really easily. I also did the extra "stratosphere" lessons online. I'm not sure how much the actual class time helped me, but I know that keeping up with the homework and consistently taking practice tests paid off. If you have any specific questions about the class, I'll try my best to answer.

[typ3]

I recently signed up for the course after a recent free test. Scored a 164 cold but decided I needed a little extra motivation and a schedule to keep me on track. Plus, the instructor for the course already has his phd from columbia and took the lsat as a pick me up and scored a 179- plus he's friendly... can't say enough good things about him.

But if I had not met the instructor before hand and got some of the other folks kap has teaching.. I would have never signed up.

Here's what I'll say about it,

Pros:

*The mastery book is the same book as the old kaplan orange book that Pity Pike talks about in his guide.

*You can access all lsat questions and sort by question type / game type / reading passage type online

*Your PT scores are instantly broken down by types and difficulty of problems missed.

*The stratosphere 164+ prep material online is actually pretty comparable to PS's in terms of quality

*Instructors can help you view the test differently and approach problems in a new fashion.

*You can get supplemental help on a few problem types, but I wouldn't suggest using Kaplan alone, I think PS is better on LG's, and some LR parts and some RC.

*The kaplan advanced book is the same as the old Kaplan180 which features some really difficult Q's to get above 170.


Cons:

*Using the Kaplan mastery book can screw your PT scores up since it uses questions from about 35 Pt's, However does not use anything from PT's: 10,20,21,22,24,26,27,28,29,33,35,37,41,50,55,56,57,58,59 (19 free to use Pt's)
*The course and materials are expensive.

*The instructors can be hit or miss- so ask for student reviews or shop around for different instructors- most centers have about 5 or more instructors.

*Some of the material is geared for students scoring between 140-164 so there is a greater percentage of redundant/easy questions and material. (However, I think this is a poor argument that people make since the stratosphere, kaplan advanced, and ability to search questions by a difficulty make up for the easy stuff. Although, I've found reviewing the easy question types like method of argument and point at issue etc in LR worthwhile. On my PT's I can lower my time on those to considerably under a minute saving me time for the ones that require diagramming.



Here's my 2 cents: Buy the PScore bibles and use them in conjunction with Kaplan advanced and the Kaplan stratosphere material (which both are included with the most basic kaplan course). It's hard to beat the functionality of being able to instantly breakdown a PT by type of question you missed or correctly answered. Additionally, the ability to instantly create an entire lesson for yourself based upon the problem type and difficulty you want is pretty sweet. However, I'm just a little bit manic since my diag for my kap class increased to 167 after only a week of Pscore and Kaplan... There's still hope to break 170.. best of luck to all TLSers